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The plumber from Kent threatening to unscrew Uber’s $60bn valuation

Simon Duke

Gary Smith is not a name that anyone would place alongside Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Larry Page on a list of visionaries who have transformed Silicon Valley. Yet the boiler engineer from Kent may have unwittingly helped to alter the course of the tech industry. His legal battle with Pimlico Plumbers threatens to undermine the “gig economy”, in which companies such as Uber and Deliveroo pay people on a per-job basis rather than offering them permanent employment.

Last month Mr Smith won a legal case against the plumbing service, where he worked for six years. The Supreme Court ruled that although he was registered as self-employed he should have been classed as a worker and been entitled to benefits such as holiday and sick…

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